Bulgaria's government has announced the start of a tender for the procurement of recycled paper and "green" office supplies.

The tender was launched by the Finance Ministry in its capacity as a the "Central Public Procurement Unit."

The government plans to have the entire public administration start using recycled paper starting 2011.

The Finance Ministry said the green public procurement tender is part of a wider strategy to reduce the use of paper in state institutions and to encourage the development of a system for electronic exchange of documents.

That is why, the government also plans to purchase less paper in 2011 compared to past years.

Its decision is also in accordance with the policies of the European Commission for green public procurement tenders in order to reduce the environmental impact of paper consumption.

The Ministry points out that between 40% and 70% of the public procurement tenders in the "Green 7" EU members – Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK – contain environmental requirements.

It says also such measures are to widely adopted in Bulgaria in anticipation of future green directives by the European Commission.